Penn State Football: Nassib and Lucas Set For Senior Bowl

Penn State defensive stars Jordan Lucas and Carl Nassib have accept invitations to play in the 67th Reese’s Senior Bowl.

The duo will participate on Saturday, Jan. 30. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala. The NFL Network will televise the contest.

Lucas and Nassib will be the 40th and 41st Nittany Lions to play in the Senior Bowl in the last 20 years. A quartet of Nittany Lions – safety Adrian Amos, defensive end Deion Barnes, offensive tackle Donovan Smith, and linebacker Mike Hull – participated in last year’s Senior Bowl activities. Defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and defensive tackle Jordan Hill played in the 2014 and 2013 Senior Bowls, respectively. Defensive end Jack Crawford, cornerback D’Anton Lynn and guard Johnnie Troutman played in the 2012 Senior Bowl.

With the selection of Lucas and Nassib, a total of 114 Lions have been invited to play in the Senior Bowl.

Lucas was fifth on the team in tackles with 56, including 2.5 tackles for loss, despite missing the final three games of the season due to injury. He also registered three pass breakups, three passes defended and a forced fumble this year. The always reliable Lucas had appeared in 40 consecutive contests until missing the San Diego State game. He had also started 27-straight regular season games before sitting out against the Aztecs.

The New Rochelle, New York native finished his Penn State career with 180 total tackles, including 117 solo stops. Lucas also accounted for 25 pass breakups, 4.0 sacks and 11.0 tackles for loss in his time in the Blue & White. A two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention choice, Lucas has registered at least 50 tackles each of the last three seasons.

Nassib is a unanimous consensus All-American, as well as the winner of the Lombardi Award (nation’s top offensive or defensive lineman or linebacker), Lott IMPACT Trophy (nation’s top impact defensive player) and Ted Hendricks Award (best defensive end) after a breakout season. He is the second Nittany Lion to win the Lombardi Award (Bruce Clark, 1978) and first Penn Stater to claim the Hendricks Award and Lott IMPACT Trophy. All totaled nine first team All-America selections.

The West Chester, Pennsylvania native was a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy (top player that started his career as a walk-on), the Nagurski Trophy (nation’s top defensive player) and Bednarik Award (nation’s top defensive player). He was picked as the Big Ten’s Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year and earned first team All-Big Ten honors from both the coaches and media.

Despite playing only four snaps in the last two games due to injury, Nassib leads FBS in sacks (15.5) and forced fumbles (6) and is second in FBS and first in the Big Ten in tackles for loss (19.5). With one sack at Northwestern, Nassib broke the Penn State single-season sacks record by upping his total to 15.5. He surpasses the mark of 15 sacks set by Larry Kubin (1979) and Michael Haynes (2002).